Saltires land tough CB40 draw

THE Saltires were handed good news and bad when the draw for next season's CB40 Trophy was made yesterday.

Their seven-team group includes Leicestershire Foxes, whom they beat twice this year, but they must also face holders Warwickshire who only stayed in the competition thanks to a record run-chase against the Saltires at Edgbaston.

Scotland also came out of the hat with previous winners Durham and Hampshire, both of whom they lost to twice in the 2010 competition. The group is made up by Northants and Surrey - the only two teams they did not meet this year.

Coach Pete Steindl said: "It is always tough when you come up against county sides but this looks like a particularly challenging group. But we want to test ourselves against the best opposition.

"Although the counties always start favourites against us the margins between success and failure can be quite small as we showed in our game against Warwickshire.

"We scored our highest-ever 40-over total and went close to knocking them out of the competition and yet they went on and won it."

Steindl refused to target more than the two wins his team managed in this year's contest but added: "We want to create a culture where we are competitive in every game. If you are still in the game going into the last over then you have every chance of winning and I'd like us to be in that position more often."

The Saltires' fixture schedule will be announced later this month but their first game could be as early as 24 April.